Chancellor Award Past Winners
John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism
2010 Robert Siegel
Siegel joined NPR in 1976 as an associate producer, was appointed public affairs editor in 1977 and senior editor in 1978. Siegel was chosen to be NPR’s first foreign correspondent in 1979 and opened its London bureau. Before joining All Things Considered in 1987, Siegel served four years as director of NPR's News and Information Department, overseeing production of NPR's newsmagazines All Things Considered and Morning Edition, as well as special events and other news programming. During his tenure, NPR launched its popular Saturday and Sunday newsmagazine Weekend Edition.
2009 Ken Armstrong
Ken Armstrong, an investigative reporter whose work prompted the Governor of Illinois to declare a moratorium on executions was the recipient of the 2009 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism. A staff reporter for The Seattle Times, Armstrong was selected for the depth and impact of his coverage of the criminal justice system.
Armstrong has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist four times in four different categories: public service, national, explanatory and investigative reporting. For the past 20 years, he has covered a range of social issues, including failures in the criminal justice system to illegally sealed court records, Orwellian conditions in the Postal Service and the community’s complicity in protecting wayward athletes.
2008 Jane Mayer and Andrew C. Revkin
Jane Mayer, a staff writer at The New Yorker and Andrew C. Revkin, The New York Times’ Science Correspondent, won the 2008 John Chancellor Awards for Excellence in Journalism. Mayer won the award for the depth and detail of her reporting on the Bush Administration’s war on terror, and Revkin for his decades-long coverage of the science and politics of climate change.
“With their consistently resourceful and original reporting, Mayer and
Revkin have been out in front of the most important stories of our time: civil liberties and global warming. They set the gold standard for journalists, and we have benefited tremendously from their dedication and hard work,” said Nicholas Lemann, dean of the journalism school and a member of the award’s selection committee.
Mayer has written a definitive account of the inner workings of the United States’ war on terror and the ill-fated decision to strengthen the presidency at the expense of civil liberties after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Revkin began reporting on the human impact on the environment more than twenty years ago. Today his authoritative work on climate change and global sustainability sets the standard for environmental reporters everywhere.
Numerous journalists joined friends and colleagues to pay tribute to the 2008 John Chancellor Award winners at Columbia’s Low Memorial Library on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. Watch videos from the ceremony.
Tom Brokaw, former anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News
Alberto Mora, former US Navy General Counsel
Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times
Watch the full ceremony
Mayer & Revkin address Journalism School students
2007 Ofra Bikel
Currently a producer for the PBS series FRONTLINE, Ofra Bikel's documentaries have freed more innocent prisoners than many professionals in the criminal justice system. Powerful, persuasive and relentless, her programs reveal hard truths about an American justice system that is at times vulnerable to ambition, racism, inertia, pride, haste, hysteria, corruption and a host of other human frailties. Bikel, who has worked exclusively for FRONTLINE since its inception in 1983, received the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism at Columbia University's Low Memorial Library on November 13, 2007.
Read more
The complete 2007 Chancellor Award ceremony honoring Ofra Bikel and a tribute to the late David Halberstam
2006 Henry Weinstein
Veteran Los Angeles Times reporter Henry Weinstein reported some of the most talked-about stories in the history of the newspaper during his 30-year career at the paper. With a lawyer's training and a journalist's passion, Weinstein covered criminal justice cases, labor disputes, and housing fraud in groundbreaking reporting that was honored with the 2006 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism at Columbia University's Low Memorial Library.
2005 Jerry Mitchell
For more than 15 years at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, Jerry Mitchell unearthed documents, cajoled suspects and witnesses, and quietly pursued the evidence in unsolved murders of civil rights activists. His investigative reporting helped bring to justice four Ku Klux Klan members, beginning with the conviction of Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers and, most recently, Edgar Ray Killen who was found guilty in June for orchestrating the murders of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner in 1964. Since 1989, when he was inspired by the movie “Mississippi Burning” and acted on a tip about state records, Mitchell’s stories have inspired the work of others, including prosecutions in seven states resulting in 27 arrests and 22 convictions for crimes committed during the civil rights struggles more than 40 years ago.
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From 1995 to 2004, the John Chancellor Award was administered by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. During that period, the following journalists were awarded the Chancellor medal:
| 2004 |
Linda Greenhouse The New York Times (1968-2008) |
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| 2003 |
Mary McGrory The Washington Post (1981-2004) |
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| 2002 |
Jim Wooten ABC News (1979-present) |
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| 2000 |
John Herbers The New York Times (1963-1987) |
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| 2000 |
Claude Sitton The News & Observer Raleigh, North Carolina (1968-1990) |
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| 1999 |
Paul Duke PBS (1974-1994) |
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| 1998 |
John Kifner The New York Times (1963-2008) |
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| 1997 |
Wilson F. “Bill” Minor The Times-Picayune New Orleans, Louisiana (1947-1976) |
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Contact Information
Abi Wright, Director
Beth Canipe, Program Assistant
Columbia University Journalism School
2950 Broadway MC3805
New York, NY 10027
Ph: 212-854-5047
Fax: 212-854-3148
chancelloraward@jrn.columbia.edu